For the last 13 years, one Newport Beach resident has attended nearly every city meeting, earning the title of “City Watchdog.”
Jim Mosher, 74, is a Caltech physics Ph.D. graduate who retired from working as a research scientist and consultant with a focus on space phenomena.
Now he’s running in the city’s Nov. 8 election for a seat on its council representing District 3, which encompasses neighborhoods surrounding upper Newport Bay.
“I made a resolution to myself in January of 2011 ... to not only go to the council meetings, but to every city meeting that was noticed on the website,” Mosher told The Epoch Times.
According to Mosher, a 42-yearlong resident, he has only missed two meetings when one of his relatives was sick.
He decided to become a faithful watcher of city hall doings in 2009 after the city approved the construction of a cell phone site in his neighborhood, despite there already being one nearby.
Although he didn’t have much success in preventing the construction of the cell site, it sparked a growing interest, he said, in city affairs.
“I began attending all city meetings to obtain a better understanding of what our government was doing, including what it was doing that it shouldn’t be doing,” Mosher wrote on his campaign website. “The rest, as they say, ‘is history.’”
When Mosher threw his name in the ring in early August there was only one candidate running in the race.
“It seemed to be very undemocratic that we would have a ballot with only one name on it,” he said.
Since then, Newport Beach resident Amy Peters has also declared her candidacy.
“I think I have something quite different that either of them has to offer on the city council,” he said. “I frankly think I'd be a better council person.”
One of the biggest issues Mosher says the city faces is the state’s housing requirements. Under a California housing law, the state requires a certain number of units to be zoned for during “planning periods.”
Affordable housing units are mandated to be included in the construction of the new development, which creates a challenge for developers to make a profit, he said.
If a luxury apartment unit were constructed, under California’s housing law a certain amount of units would be required to be priced as affordable.
For a developer, that would be a big money loser, Mosher said.
“So, they have to . . . [put] in a huge number of luxury units to subsidize the affordable units,” he said.
If elected, Mosher said he promises to continue thoroughly looking over city staff recommendations, as well as analyzing the countless city council agenda packet pages as he’s done for the last decade.
He says often it seems councilmembers haven’t analyzed or read an agenda item before voting on it, which, he said, he hopes to change.
“Not to mention that 13 years of criticizing the work of others comes with an obligation to, at least once, offer to attempt to do the job better than they have,” Mosher’s campaign website reads.
Mosher has not reported campaign donations as of the last filing deadline on June 30.
